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Adventures in Whittier

So after rehearsal last night I went to Memories and had a great time. They played a much more eclectic mix including Christina Aguilera’s “Candyman” (which for all it’s objectionable content is a b!tchin’ good swing song) and Outkast’s Idlewild Blues which are probably my two favorite not-directly-swing swing dancing songs. After the place closed up (Closin’ Time and Get The F*ck Out were the last songs) I walked a girl out to her car, enjoying the echo of the empty Whittier streets. As I headed back through the back alleys of Whittier to my car, I noticed a group sitting in a circle around the back of a car where someone was strumming a guitar and singing. I went over and sat down. After a couple of songs, he started in on a Martin Sexton song (couldn’t tell you which one, except that it wasn’t Thirteen Step Boogie). Being swing dancers, everybody jumps up and we lindy bomb the parking lot of a swing venue (irony though art a cruel mistress). After that, the guitarist keeps going and somebody breaks out Frisbee’s. An hour later the fun finally comes to an end and we all head for home. Pictures of the fun.

Driving home – fastest way is to head down the 605 to the 405. Get there and CalTrans has shutdown the 605 S 405 S connector, with a recommendation to take WB 7th street as a detour. So I follow their directions and get hopelessly confused. I can’t just take WB 7th street anywhere I need to go, so I make a legal U-Turn and head back to the 405. But they’ve closed off the EB 7th Street entrance to the 405! So now I get on the 405 N with the intention of doubling back next chance I get, which is Palos Verdes Ave. BUT THEY’VE CLOSED THAT SOUTHBOUND FREEWAY ENTRANCE AS WELL! So I race back onto the 405 N and get off at the next exit (Woodruff) and I’m finally able to get onto the 405 SB. What should have been a half hour drive home is now an hour. Apparently, not only was CalTrans hard at work on the 405/22 carpool lane, there was what looked like a fatal accident on the 405 S just before the 605 AND on the 405 N just before the 605. Ridiculously crazy, no?

Oh yeah, another nugget from the evening: Lindy in the Lot. Gather a whole bunch of cars in a parking lot, create a giant circle and turn on all the headlights (think “Cool” from West Side Story the movie). Instant dance floor.